[rob76turbo]

Well I knew that the old clutch / flywheel / throwout bearing was starting to go, so I bit the bullet and decided to do some major upgrades:

1. IMS Upgrade from Flat 6
2. Flywheel and clutch kit and slave cylinder
3. New RMS
4. New Wheel bearings F / R
5. New Front brake rotors
6. As it turns out a new exhaust too....

To start off the experience with Flat 6 was just fantastic. The customer service was superb. I especially want to thank Dean for going above and beyond the call of duty to answer my questions and when we discovered I needed a dual row bearing (instead of the single row my motor serial number told us), he made sure I got one on Saturday AM (after ordering it Friday). The install was as easy as the web site and Jake say it is. You should pay the extra $70 and buy the extractor tool....well worth it. The only issue I had was I snapped one of the bolts holding the flange, but an Easy Out kit cured that. Jake, maybe let everyone know the torque setting for those bolts...

Getting the flywheel and clutch back in was no problem. I sawed off the heads of two of the old Flywheel bolts, gently threaded them in and used that as a guide to align the flywheel....like butter... Clutch was easy too. We had to jiggle the transmission around a bit to get the splines lined up but after the 6th try it went right home...

Bearings are well...a bear. But the right bearing press kit and a slide hammer helped. One of the posts I read had you remove the strut assembly, but that did not make sense to do, so instead we used a tie rod seperator to break the steering rod and lower spindle bolt and pulled the spindle right off. Using a large table top vice, slide hammer and bearing press, everything went right out and right back in.

When we pulled the old exhaust out, it was very difficult (and we had three guys that know how to turn wrenches). So I decided right there to buy a new one (please do not tell my wife......). Bought one from Vertex (Charles has been just great to work with), the Schnell Elite exhaust and we installed it last night.

Had a few teething issues (you know the being really tired ones like forgetting to put in the oil, forgetting to torque only one of the rear shaft bolts....you now things like that...). Upon pressing in the clutch, it dropped straight to the floor, but a rebleed of the system cured that. But it all went back together and car started...did not blow up and it seems to drive fine.

I will post later how I like he exhaust. It is a lot deeper than the old boat anchor. I will make some runs top down to get an idea of the real sound.

Had fun, glad I did it, but it was still hard work. About now I usually appreciate the pros that can do this stuff if their sleep. But I learned a bit more about my car and can now fix more stuff on it next time something happens. All in all a good experience.